Our day in court

Today was our court date. Let me start out by saying that Natasha is now officially our daughter!!! However, the day was not without a bit of drama. When we drove to the orphanage to pick up Natasha, she was withdrawn and quiet. She would not meet our gaze. For the 20 minute drive to the court, she stared out the window. I reached out my hand, asking for her to take it, but she refused. I was a little more persistent and took her hand in mine. She pulled away. Now I was getting concerned that perhaps she had changed her mind. When we picked up Natasha, her social worker from the orphanage came with us and we picked up the inspector on the way. These 2 people, along with our facilitator, were doing there best to talk to Natasha and ease her mind. She clung to them, but would hardly accept any comfort for us. While waiting in the courtroom hallway she stayed close to the orphanage staff and started to cry. She wanted no comfort from us. This was really confusing for us. Did she change her mind???? Our facilitator prepared us well for the questions we would be asked in court. The questions we were asked lasted less than 15 minutes. When Natasha was called on to speak, she looked really uncomfortable and akward. She stammered our a few words. The court smiled at her reassuringly. Finally we all left. Everything was fine, she said she wanted to be adopted by us. But again, walking to the car, the whole drive back and walking to her classroom she kept to herself. Once in the classroom she talked to the teacher for awhile and then went to her room to change clothes. We were at a loss as to what to think. We played with the other kids in class while we waited for her to return.

Once she returned and was more relaxed, she started to smile again. We exchanged a few hugs and she nodded that she was okay. We walked to the store and picked up some goodies for the class. During the walk back, she grabbed my (Laurel) hand on her own, spontaneously. Hooray! This is what I had been waiting 2 weeks for !! When we got back from the store she was even more affectionate, more so that she had ever been. We explained that we would be coming back in 10 days and then we bring her to America. Big smile. We said goodbye to all the wonderful kinds in the class. Leaving was hard.

We had a great celebratory dinner with our facilitator and driver. Finally we have our daughter. Wohoo! Vokda all around !(well, except for our driver ) We talked at some length during dinner about her behavior today. Natasha is a very thoughtful girl, and is stuggling to process this very big change in her life. She has some mixed emotions, as would be expected. She is looking to people she trusts for guidance. Some of these people are encouraging her to go, others are not. How confusing this must be for her. She was deep in thought as we drove to court.

We stopped at the Nemiroff factory for some gifts to take home. Bright and early tomorrow morning we drive 5 hours back to Kiev and then take a Saturday morning flight back to the States.

A big day for everyone!